


A Trip to the Zoo

by firecatwashere



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Autistic Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Character Study, Gen, i know how to edit tags i swear, tim has tourettes cause so do i and i said so, tourettes!tim stoker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24338542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecatwashere/pseuds/firecatwashere
Summary: Jonathan Sims goes to the zoo, because even if he'd rather stay in bed and wallow, he has a free admission pass about to expire and Georgie made him promise not to let it do that.
Relationships: Georgie Barker & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Georgie Barker & Tim Stoker, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist & Tim Stoker
Comments: 12
Kudos: 109





	A Trip to the Zoo

"Jon?" It is impossible not to hear Georgie through the door, but he shoves his head under the blankets and ignores her anyway. "Jon, please. You've been in here for 3 days straight." This time the voice is accompanied by a sharp rap on the door. "I can and I will pick the lock, Jon," she calls again, this time met with a groan. "Fine, come in," he mumbles.

Georgie settles herself into his desk chair and fixes her gaze on the pile of blankets concealing Jon's thin form. "I know damn well you're not sleeping. What's going on?" Her gaze softens slightly, not that he's in a position to notice.

"Did something happen?" Silence.

"Have you been taking your meds." A groan, which she interprets as a no.

"Have you missed your T shot yet?" The groan is repeated. That's good, at least he's not completely thrown himself out of whack.

"Let me guess, because the term's over your brain says you should be in Bournemouth but you aren't and it's breaking your sense of routine so hard you don't know what to do with yourself?" A hand emerges from the blanket pile and offers up a middle finger in the direction of her voice before retreating.

"You know, you could come to brunch with Tim and I, we're going tomorrow with a few of the other student union volunteers. And there's the zoo pass you promised you'd use, it expires in a few days." This is met with a grunt, followed by a muffled "I'll think about it."

"Alright, well I'm off to lunch and adventuring with my brothers, and Clair's off work at 9, so it'll be just you until 4ish. Or should be, but knowing my brothers, might be until 6. Ring me if you need anything, okay?" The door swings shut. _Georgie_ , Jon thinks, _has an annoying tendency to be right about his well-being_. As dictated by last year, the end of his first year of university, he should have been on a train back to Bournemouth, going home for the summer, 3 days ago. Instead, he is here in a flat with Georgie and a very white lesbian named Clair, decidedly not in Bournemouth. He'd moved in at the start of winter term, after the other lesbian in the flat – Georgie had joked that before him the flat was "All WLW, all the time" – had had to move back home for a family emergency. Georgie had suggested it, and given that it was break and he had time to get things in order, he decided the hassle of moving was well worth getting to live somewhere that he only shared a single bathroom with 2 other people instead of a row of stalls that served the entire floor of the student residence. 

He'd first met Georgie at some silly orientation activity, and then discovered she was in his introductory psychology class. At the end of their first lecture, he'd realized there was an hour until his next class and promptly froze, having no idea what to do with the time. She'd approached, full of that boldness he later learned came from having three brothers, and told him to come with her and get lunch. Not asked, but told. He wasn't thinking of anything better, so he did, and they started talking. She'd asked about him a little bit, just the basics – name, pronouns, where are you from, what are you studying – then noticed he didn't seem to like talking about himself and dove into telling him about her brothers. He'd been a bit taken aback when she asked his pronouns, but when she showed him a picture of her and her brothers at the beach he noticed the scars on the oldest one's chest and softened a little in her presence. They had continued getting lunch together and occasionally meeting between other classes, occasionally joined by one or two acquaintances of Georgie's, but Jon always felt best with just her. He wasn't sure back then if they quite counted as friends, but when he needed quiet, she was quiet. When he needed to be distracted, she told him about student union projects she was volunteering. And when he felt like rambling about dragon mythos through history, she listened intently.

Tim became the third member of their party at the start of second year. Georgie had shown up to lunch with a gangly man in tow who looked slightly awkward in his height and wore a jacket adorned with several pins, telling Jon she'd met him at a student union meeting and thought they might get along. The man introduced himself as Tim, and offered an advance apology for his shrieking tic that had apparently been acting up that day. As Tim sat down with them, Jon's eyes were drawn to the gentle teal circle next to a "he/him" pin, which read "I have Tourette's" in a plain black font. The memory brings back another pair of memories: first, sitting in a clinic office repeating the word "cabbages" and tilting his head every time he saw the doctor do the same, and second, reading his assessment paperwork while arranging learning accommodations for uni and discovering that the repetition of other people's words and movements were called echolalia and echopraxia respectively, and he had presented with such an intense case of both that they had done an hour of extra testing to investigate the possibility of him having Tourette's. And so, when Tim started hanging out with him and Georgie, he wasn't as jarred by it as he'd expected. Maybe he could join them for brunch, if it wasn't too late. He has absolutely no idea what time it is. Last night he'd stayed up until nearly four in the morning, only to be awoken at 7am sharp by the part of his brain that rigidly made sure he was awake in time to go to class, but that was hours ago. He opens his phone to see a text from Georgie an hour ago that she's just left but he can still meet them late? It's almost one o'clock. No, he can't join them for brunch.

A few months into the fall term, the three of them were hanging out between classes when Jon's brain made him repeat one of Tim's vocal tics. Which had made Tim tic again. Which made his brain make him say it again. Damned echolalia. Tim had reassured him several times that it was okay, he wasn't purposefully being a dick and sometimes brains are just like that, but he never quite felt at ease about it. He didn't avoid Tim, but he found himself being a bit more reserved around him.

If he were in Bournemouth right now, what would he be doing? He doesn't want to think about it, quite frankly, and he decides it's about time to catch up on all the missed sleep.

  
Georgie wakes him up with a text, reminding him that it's T day, does he have the spoons to do it himself or does he need a hand, and don't forget about the zoo pass. Oh, and take a shower. Around an hour and a half later, showered, dressed, meds and shot taken and breakfast eaten, Jon makes his way to the tube. He's only feeling marginally better – mostly the testosterone, he thinks – but he did promise Georgie, and the pass expires at midnight. The tube is noisy, and the zoo will likely be as well, but he'd talked himself into bringing his ear defenders, doing his best impression of Georgie all the while. He's also got some snacks, a water bottle, and a little weighted crab in his backpack.

On the way in, he decides that he's going to try to look at everything. Emphasis on "try". He doesn't bother with a map, just follows the signs. When he sees the otters, he can't help but coo a little bit as one of them lets out a whiny squeak. The next animal he's really excited about is the penguins, snapping a few photos and sending them to Tim. He steps into the spider room, and immediately steps back out and has to go sit down and rock gently. For a moment he hovers over the idea of texting Georgie to come and pick him up, but he said he would see everything, and he will. Instead of leaving, he breathes, and the weighted crab joins him as a shoulder companion through a few more areas of the zoo. That is, until he turns a corner and sees a huge merry-go-round. _What the hell_ , he thinks, _this counts as something to see_ , and gets in line. 

It's faster than he expected, and he sticks a hand out gently to feel the rushing air. The whole thing is rather thrilling, honestly.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed! come bother me on tumblr @arotimstoker :)


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